MIRI: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Baram chairman Roland Engan, who stood as a candidate for the constituency in the just-concluded parliamentary election, attributes the party’s defeat to the hard work done by Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil.
The PKR man acknowledges the solid efforts by Penguang, who is Marudi assemblyman, in drawing the support from the people, resulting in them to switch from PKR to Barisan Nasional (BN).
“There are lots of factors that contribute (to the defeat) – the delineation exercise where Bario, which was previously under Lawas parliamentary area, was shifted into Baram; and also the good performance of Penguang. That really pulled in the support for BN in Baram,” he said in a recent interview.
Roland also pointed out the Internet connectivity across the rural areas in Baram as another factor that affected the election results.
On this, he stressed that not everyone, specifically the rural constituents of Baram, had access to the Internet, which could have provided them with vast information on things happening outside their zone.
“To the majority of them, BN is the government,” he said.
Nevertheless, Roland expressed his appreciation to his supporters, in that he received more support than when he first contested in the 2013 parliamentary polls.